Besides the very real — and realistic — fears that have accompanied this coronavirus pandemic, we’ve seen a fair amount of confusion and occasional goofiness.
If some people had looked logically at advice they might have to self-isolate for a period of time because of disease, not natural disaster, there would likely never have been a run on toilet paper, of all things. Nor would those of us who were slow to react had to search for it so hard. I found mine a roll or two at a time from friends for a while.
Some of the confusion is not chuckle-inducing.
Early on, some health officials not only didn’t recommend wearing any kind of mask, but they actively discouraged it. Surgeon Gen. Jerome Adams was quite shrill: “Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS!” he tweeted, adding “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”
We’re still being told masks won’t protect us; they’ll protect others from us, should we have the virus. But we are also being encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others — in some cases even mandated — to wear cloth masks.
I believed Adams wholeheartedly and passed the message on. He’s the surgeon general, right? It would have been better if he and others had simply said the doctors and nurses and other health care staff that would be testing and treating patients for COVID-19 desperately need medical-grade masks and rely on us, the public, to help them out by not buying up all the supplies.
Most of us cooperated and maybe even snagged coveted N95 masks and donated them, because we all want to get through this. But we would have been less confused and doubtful later when the recommendation changed. Nothing’s likely to change the behavior of the minority who always put their own needs first. But a lot of people wouldn’t have been left wondering whether we were deliberately misled to protect supplies. If that’s the case, it wasn’t necessary.
And some who are now mistrustful of information might be more receptive.
Tell us what you know and why it matters. The vast majority of us are smart enough and good-hearted enough to navigate the truth and do our best to help each other.
We’ve seen confusing messages with medicine, too. I’m thinking of hydroxychloroquine, which hasn’t tested well against this coronavirus, but which is so needed by people with the conditions that it does successfully treat.
It would have been better, I think, to explain that researchers and clinicians are doing what’s usual with a severe new illness: Trying different things to see what does and doesn’t work. Instead, in some quarters, the drug was hyped and somehow became politicized.
Convalescent plasma therapy, which uses antibodies from someone who survived COVID-19 to treat someone who is very ill with the disease, fared better and has shown genuine promise. So did the prospective antiviral remdesivir, which hasn’t been through the whole run of normal clinical trials, but may shorten the duration of COVID-19. They were tested against the disease, rather than over-touted.
We understand that this pandemic is still unfolding, the individual impact ranging thus far from inconvenience to tragedy. The art and aspiration of this is making it through the best we can, with sincere attempts to navigate the unknown and to understand what experts have learned.
Some people, including public health officials, are talking about the immunity those who recovered have as if it’s clear, the details known. Others are more circumspect. If you ask an expert directly, you’ll learn there’s more speculation than certainty in some COVID-related pronouncements, including whether those infected can get it again.
My hope is we reach a place where experts sort it out and say it clearly. I’m OK if someone says, “We think.” There’s absolutely no shame in “I don’t know.”
As we fight this pandemic together and try to navigate what may be a decidedly odd “normal” in coming months, just give it to us straight, please. And don’t forget the caveats.